The seventh installment in the Killer VHS series from Shortwave Publishing, The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower, is a suspenseful claustrophobic cryptid horror tale that might be the best in the series so far.
The sound of the whistle that split Patricia’s life in two still haunts her two decades later, its echoes leaving their indelible stamp on everything she does. The rift caused by her father’s unsolved death haunts her, pushing her to ever more dangerous attempts to put his memory to rest. Breaking into mausoleums in the dead of night isn’t how she pictured her life, but she’ll do almost anything to know what happened.
When a group of amateur cryptid hunters shows up in her small town, Trish doesn’t hesitate to take what might be her only chance to find answers, even if they’re searching in the last place she should be. A sealed, abandoned mine; tight underground passages filled with unseen creatures, and impenetrable darkness await the crew, but it’s the only path forward, and Trish won’t leave her father’s legacy buried, delving ever deeper into danger to where that whistle still moans.
The opening chapters of The Long Low Whistle are already terrifying enough and this is only the setup for the story itself. Patricia’s experience decades earlier are horrifying on their own, but that is just the beginning. Laurel Hightower purposefully grounds us in raw grief horror, then spins it into a horrifying claustrophobic cryptid tale that never lets up.
Dealing with life’s unexplained tragedies is hard enough, but facing those tragedies while being surrounded by even more of the unexplained is harder. The blend of cryptid horror and grief trauma made for a truly spectacular novella. At times, I couldn’t even explain why I felt so on edge and that’s rare. I found myself terrified to turn the page. From the first sentence to the final period, Hightower had me hooked. t was hard to find a good place to want to take a break.
Hightower slides us into the world of Killer VHS with one simple clip from the day Patricia’s father dies, an eerie and effective entry point within the confines of the Killer VHS series. This one clip launches us into a suspenseful, action-packed nightmare full of the unknown. These Killer VHS stories are truly Goosebumps for adults, but with a tighter, more complex thread that weaves them all together. It’s a tough balance to pull off, yet each new author manages to find a way to pull it off.
The Long Low Whistle is a triumphal work of horror writing that kept me on edge from beginning to end. Laurel Hightower blends emotional horrifying moments with terrifying cryptid scares that made me want to keep the lights on. This is the kind of story you might not want to put down until you have finished the final paragraph. It’s a haunting, unforgettable read that still has me reeling.
The Long Low Whistle – Killer VHS #7 drops on November 4, 2025 from Shortwave Publishing.
